Christmas Eve

I know that this will not work for some, but anybody who has nothing better to do on Christmas Eve, is invited to The Lindstroms.   Come whenever you like, but let us know if you are coming and plan to be getting the food ready around 5 p.m. and we'll eat at 5:30.

What's the meal theme?  Good question.

• We don't want to repeat Thanksgiving with turkey, etc.  
• Jean has already grabbed "Scandanavian" for Christmas Day.  
• Rumor has it that a certain someone with the initials Ralph Carlson has put the kabosh on hors dourves.
• So we are suggesting "Pot Luck".  Bring whatever you want.  But e-mail and let us know your plans so we can keep others informed so we don't end up with a half-dozen variations on pickled herring.

I'll also send this via e-mail and facebook.  But whether we see you or not, everybody please have the merriest Christmas you can.

Mac Donalds

By the way, I'm really enjoying Paul's uploads of Mom and Dad's photos. Where does the time go?

This first photo of mine is from a walk Richard and Jo and I took down the Champs Elysees - one of the most expensive and exclusive shopping areas in the world.

Believe it or not this is what you first see when you walk into the McDonalds on the Champs Elysees.

But nobody was ordering anything from that first display of everything classically French.  You walk further in and there are hordes of people crowded in to order the real thing. . .American fast food.  The guide book said this is the most profitable McDonalds in the world.

Jo and I were constantly impressed with our eating experiences in France.  Their attention to quality and detail is breathtaking.  Fresh basil, authentic Swiss cheese, toothsome flavorful breads etc. etc.

But judging from this McDonalds it looks like we are  slowly winning them over.  I'm not sure what to think of this.  I liked the French eating experience, but I also like McDonalds.

11-11-11

Have a onederful 11-11-11 today.

The Louvre

Crown of St. Louis 1265 a.d.

 The Louvre!  You could spend a year in The Louvre and not begin to grasp all it holds.  Richard and Jo went off to look at the art (e.g. The Mona Lisa) but I wandered in the direction of the antiquities.  This is an extremely random sampling of what I saw starting with a crown of St. Louis, a king of France important to us if for no other reason than our county of Minnesota is St. Louis.

Charlemagnes' Arm 1165 a.d.

Gladiator's Helmet 80 a.d.

Amphora Reward Olympics 325 b.c.

From Darius the Persian 510 b.c.

An Assyrian Hero 710 b.c.

A Mesopotamian Prince 3000 b.c.

First Snow

Sunday... and Monday     We have about 3 inches now up here in Nikiski, Alaska.  Pictures will be coming soon when i have time to post them.  Leaving to go play hockey now.  PS i really like those photos of Dad and Mom, Paul - You did a good job!

OK i added the photos to prove when we had the first approximately 1" of snow.  Then on the 1st and 2nd of Nov. we had some huge winds that knocked trees on to power lines all over the peninsula.  Look at the cottonwood tree in the bottom photo.  The wind broke it off at the stump and it did not even scrape the bank.  It just jumped about 5' into the driveway.   Lois Ann did not have to go to school on the 2nd because the power was still off.  Today is the 3rd and we now have 6-8" of new snow.  Winter has arrived!!!  

Jet Lag

Mark says, "We want more" of the Paris trip.

That's a dangerous thing to say to someone fresh home from a vacation with hundreds of photos.  But then again, why not?  It don't cost nothing.

Day one was my first experience of jet lag.  We arrived in Paris about the time I usually go to bed (midnight), but it was early morning.

The bus from the airport let us off at "Opera".  I earlier  said it was Hugo's Opera, but Victor Hugo did not write Phantom of the Opera.

We meandered two blocks south westerly and here's an edifice that looks like a roman temple (see first picture).  It's the church of Madeline built by Napoleon to celebrate a military victory. That's my dear friend Dr. Richard Ralph Roach next to Jo.

Then we meandered two blocks further south and there's an obelisk.  It's an Egyptian artifact from the time of the Israel captivity in Egypt.  The obelisk is centered on the place where the guillotine once slaughtered thousands during The Revolution with hundreds of thousands crowded in to cheer and be entertained.

We head east toward the Louvre through a "garden" filled with statues.  I wandered up towards one and find it is a Greek statue from the time of Plato.

Until this trip I had never been outside North America.  This first day where I'm in a sleepless fog, even now, feels like a dream.

Inky Dinky Parleyvou

Jo and I are back from France.

An amazing trip!

From the moment we arrived (at the Opera i.e. Victor Hugo's "The Phantom of the Opera" opera!) to the day we left we were breathless in awe of the things we were seeing.

From busts of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to artifacts from Assyria circa the time of Isaiah.

A great trip, and Dr. Richard Ralph Roach was a great guide.

After a week in Paris we went to the rural Loire Valley, home of numerous historic castles.

Trip of a lifetime!

But I noticed that a month went by without anybody saying anything at this blog site.  Not good.

Don't wait for the trip of a lifetime to post something.  I really like to hear or see the simple and basic things we are all experiencing.

p.s. Peter is home and we were really glad to see him when we got back.  Pray for a job for him in surveying - or close to it.

First Frost

This was the first frost of this season.  This photo was taken on 9/27/2011 at 10AM.  We could make a little contest, since Dan wants more postings, and see who can be the first one to post photos of snow for this winter.  Also if someone is creative they could set up a prediction grid or graph of when we will get the first 1" or 1/2" of snow.  Just some ideas to get more traffic and readership and participation.

Jonathan

You can follow Jonathan's postings about his adventure at http://chasingthesloth.wordpress.com/

 At one place he mentions almost stepping on a caiman in a river. I looked up "caiman". Oh my!

Peter and Jonathan

The alarm went of at 3 a.m. and we took Jonathan and another Gustavus junior to the airport.  Jonathan is going to spend the fall semester in the rain forest jungles of Costa Rica studying the biology there.  We won't be seeing him again until December.

At noon Sargent Sargent (no kidding) arrived at our house to pick up Peter and drive him to Fargo.  There he will, in the morning, take a plane to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for 2 1/2 months of boot camp.  He will remain there for another 2 months of specialized training in surveying and weather analysis.  We don't know when we will see him next.  His only contact with the outside world will be through the post office - once we are given an address. . .which may not be for a week or two.

It is suddenly very quiet at our house.  Josie's passing has reminded us that each moment of life is a gift and nothing should be taken for granted.  A prayer or two for the safety of our boys would be appreciated.

Jonathan is going to try and maintain a blog with photos of his adventure.  We'll get you that site as soon as we get it.  And Peter's address at boot camp too.

The World's Largest Jack Pine!

I've lived in northwestern Minnesota over 30 years now, but it wasn't until just last year that I learned that we had the world's largest Jack Pine a mere 40 miles away. How could I have missed this important piece of information? Am I ignorant? Why isn't this a huge tourist attraction? I couldn't even find any photos on-line.


The large jack pine is located in Lake Bronson State Park. They don't even highlight it in their literature! What's up with that? I'm pretty sure I've been to the park at least 30 times over the years and I've never heard about it.


Well, as it turns out, it's not real easy to get to. One has to walk about 2 miles through the woods:

I walked about 3/4 mile when I realized I didn't have enough mosquito repellant on. I was going to have to turn around and miss this opportunity. Then, a small miracle happened. Right there in the middle of the trail was a can of Deep Woods Off! I drenched myself in it and continued on my way.


Well, I finally saw a sign pointing to the right that said something like "Large Pine". I was the only one there. I hadn't seen anyone on the trail during the whole walk. As it turns out I wouldn't see anyone on the way back either... I walked about 150 feet down the trail to a small opening. The opening isn't even large enough to capture the whole tree in the photo. Well, here it is:
Okay, it's a humble Jack Pine. It's not a Sequoia. This is what Jack Pines look like. It's approximately 56 feet tall and 116 inches around (although there's no plaque or monument at the site providing this information).

And no, it's not dead, JaNae. Here's a photo showing the needles near the top:As far as I can tell, these are the first pictures of this tree on the internet. (I suppose now the floodgates will open and tourists from all over the world will visit the park.)

Jocelyn Renee Brengman

Roseau ALS 5K

Here I am beginning the 5K in Roseau last Saturday. The main difference I can see between Holly and myself is that I look winded at the beginning of the race and Holly looks rested at the end.

I'm pretty sure it was the hottest, most humid morning of the year so far. I'm proud to say that I beat all the other old people in the race (everyone over 50). Don't misinterpret that for me being fast...

Mt. Marathon Race

After many years of trying to get a spot in the ladies race Holly finally succeeded. She was number 444 which ironically was the winning time in the men's race. The top man finished in 44 minutes and 40 seconds!







Here she is waving from the second group. There were two waves of about 150 runners in each group. The second wave started 5 or 10 minutes after the first wave.















They are off and running.












Mt. Marathon in Seward is 3022' tall and it is only? a 3 mile race. The hardest part is running the 1/2 mile plus in the streets at the bottom of the mountain.

They hike up the left trail and run fast down the right side.







After the race Holly doesn't even look winded. She wants to do it again next year!

She finished in about the middle of the pack. They have to finish in less than 3 hours to get a spot next year. She wanted to do it in less than 2 hours and would have been real happy with 1:45. She did it in 1:37!











You might be able to blow this up if you want to read more.

Warning

I'm cleaning out the garage.  For some reason I have three boxes of old Stynsberg memorabilia - photos, letters, funeral notices, patent applications, stamps etc.  Much of it is from before any of us were born.

I'm bringing them to Jose's party on Monday.  You guys (i.e. Stynsbergs) can decide what's to be done with it all.

Who knows, maybe some of those stamps are valuable?

Jose's 4th on the 4th!

You're invited to Jose's birthday party (and family get-together) on the 4th! Come at 2pm or whenever. Potluck at 5pm. We'll have the grill if you want to grill. We'll rent a tent if it looks like it will be wet. Horseshoes? Bocce ball? Croquette? Volleyball? Swing? Hike? Sit and talk? Fireworks? Bring a lawn chair and beverage. We have some lawn chairs and we'll have water and something... Please don't feel obligated to bring a gift for Jose. We'll probably do this every year for another 14 years!

A New Chapter for Jo

This is Jo when she was a student teacher.

This is Jo when she first started teaching.

This is Jo in retirement.  Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. A race well run.  Sadder but wiser.

Number One!!!

 It's a good thing Mark is retired because when it snows he removes an overwhelming 800 feet of snow.

First step: He plows his own driveway which gives him 300 feet.

Then:  he goes over to his "cabin" to add on another 325 feet.

And finally:  just for the fun of it, he goes to Christopher's house for another 175 feet.

So in one sense Mark is the winner by a long shot.  But (since I didn't win) I wonder if he isn't in fact the loser and Greg with his measly 37 feet is in truth the winner?

The distance between Mark and the rest of us lengthens even more when you consider that Minnesota averages 45 inches of snow a season and the Kenai averages 90.  If we were to factor that in then in "Minnesota Feet" Mark moves 1600 feet of snow.

Ouch!  Again. . . it's a good thing he's retired and congratulations to Mark. He is the manliest of men no matter what the method of removal is.

The Grass is Greener...

I realize we haven't totally exhausted the subject of snow removal yet, but it's Memorial Day weekend... Perhaps we should begin talking about the green stuff that's beginning to ask for hours of our lives every week.


Faith says push lawn mowers have been perfectly adequate for the last 30 years and should continue to serve us for 30 more. Riding lawn mowers may be fine ... for 85-year-old great grandmothers with large yards! Heck, she shelled out plenty for this lawn mower 10 years ago... Recently, in a weak moment, she surprised me and said she might consider allowing us to save up for a pedal mower!

Number Two

The reason Dan and Mark are still in the race is because they both do more than their own driveways.

Dan and Jo come in at number two with 450 feet.  The road going into their driveway is not maintained by the city, so Dan does his driveway, then Hill Trail Court from Hill Trail North to the end of their property line and then just for the fun of it he does Al and Veronica's driveway.

Once in awhile neighbor George does the first half of Hill Trail Court with his ATV but not often and lets not complicate things - right?

Dan has not used a shovel on his driveway since Peter turned six.

Spring

Here are a few spring photos taken in the past week or so.